China will step up regulation on real estate brokerage services, according to a notice jointly issued by eight government departments including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the State Administration for Market Regulation on Monday.
The fees for real estate brokerage services should be negotiated and determined by the parties involved in the transaction based on factors such as the service content, service quality, and market supply and demand, according to the notice.
Real estate brokerage agencies should reasonably lower service fees for home purchase and renting transactions and the regulators encourage tiered pricing and will guide both parties of transactions to share the brokerage service fees, it said.
Real estate agencies and practitioners are banned from illegally collecting, using, processing, or transmitting clients’ personal information, and illegally buying, providing, or publicly disclosing such information, the notice said.
In addition, real estate agencies should establish and improve their internal management systems for protecting clients’ personal information, strictly collect, use, and process clients’ personal information in accordance with the law, and take effective measures to prevent the leakage or illegal use of the’ personal information, showed the notice.
Without the consent of the parties involved, real estate agencies and practitioners are not allowed to collect personal information or information about the property, nor are they allowed to send commercial text messages or make commercial phone calls, it said.